TrojanHorse

Ya. I have a feeling this call was on speaker phone at Cannondale HQ.

Homebrew01

"This call may be recorded for amusement purposes"

fietsbob

OP , Dude ?

stop the self centered whining,

Now go back through the Cannondale retailer .

jsharr

Guys, he got the point. I think.

Homebrew01

^^ Probably. We did pile on rather heavily.

TheReal Houdini

If no need ,why post here?

samg07094

That's why most mechanics have a press. Mine is driven by a 12-ton jack. I'll have to research bicycle use if I decide to go over Niagara with this barrel.

First rate idea, the mud guard.

Btw: I think of bikes as occurring naturally for repairs in an upside down position. The side with the gap is the natural left side. That crank on this bike has a shelf cast in place that looks to be a natural for attaching a rubber boot to fill the gap.

In practice, I could install such a boot by removing the pedal and slipping the rubber over the crank arm into place. Doing a one-off with rubber ********** Not rubber, but something close. OMG... I have a vacuum system and this gets to be a %$#&*( disaster for wasting time.

It's aesthetics. I think that making a fitting to protect the BB is cool. Of course blowing out crap with compressed air is one of a dozen easier ways to approach this aesthetic issue.

We've got one comment in this thread saying that everybody knows that frame bolts are 5mm .8.

Everybody here, maybe or maybe not. But what percentage of the U.S., population would quote that spec item as a dead cold fact ??? It's not quite up there with 1776 or Obama being the 44th president. More like 1 in a 1,000.

Cannondale could easily attach a list of bike info sites to their emails responding to generic questions. Bikepedia.com is lovely. Shimano runs a superb web site. It's not like this info is Top Secret. Further, thinking that Cdale dealers are going to make more money from rider ignorance is inept as corporate marketing. Like it or not, clients of B2C businesses know when they are being bullied or ignored.

Thanks for the mud flaps comment. Got me back to earth and mud.

TrojanHorse

You keep saying you're a client of Cannondale. I don't think you understand that buying a used, out-of-warranty bike from a third party for a pittance doesn't make you a client of Cannondale. Just saying.

I'm interested in pictures of you mounting your crank arms with a 12 ton press though. Anybody else?

AnkleWork

When you wrestle with a pig you get covered in s**t, but the worst thing is that the pig enjoys it.

samg07094

Emails. Several of them. Not once did the "Cannondale Experts" divulge a useful fact about this 2009 Quick 6. Or offer a URL for reference use.

The guys here ??? That's where to go for "A" level CustServ responses. And our experts are not being paid which makes it a community treat.

Wilfred Laurier

i bet they suggested going to a cannondale dealer though

and even if you had spoken to a real bike shop
any real bike shop
they could provide you with all the information you need

the problem was that
for some reason
you were avoiding the usual route for getting info

Homebrew01

See post #23

samg07094

Any owner of a company's products is a client. Primary market, secondary market... no difference. Warranty has nothing to do with it. Companies that don't know that tend to go out of business.

I have no idea how a smallish shop press would be used to mount a crank arm. That's why I said I'd have to research bicycles. I pulled a crank off my Panasonic 20-odd years ago and certainly did not use a press on or off. More likely a gear puller, but I don't remember what I did.

The Panasonic is very easy to tend to. Tossing the chain and such in a parts bath during the winter is the one extra bit of coddling it has experienced. So far 33 years and the metal parts are all in good shape. It rides like it did when it was 5.

Unfortunately what's happening with this thread, generally, is an insistence that bike-specific knowledge is the be-all and the end-all to success. My guess, so far, is that experience with machine tools and hand tools and metals can be applied to ordinary bicycles straightforwardly. Fabbing a part to keep mud out of a BB is 3 parts fun, 1 part engineering madness.

And a first-rate pair of fenders looks to go ~$50. Hell, yes !!

samg07094

We established early on that there is one LBS and they do not service Cannondale.

Not an option.

My main point is that Cannondale doesn't seem to understand the role for customer service operations. They as much as go out of their way to avoid meeting professional standards. I've installed call center software for scores of shops and the conversations you want to see at a CustServ don't look like what happened here with Cannondale.

They need to integrate with their corporate web site. That site needs information resources for clients. A resources FAQ is more like it to meet professional standards.

What you get instead is a blank wall. The simplest question is not answered. The attitude is as rude as the "put it on loudspeaker" and "pig" comments above. Look closer and you can tell that Raleigh is the last standalone bike company of any size -- that what is now Cannondale is a brand like any other brand for one more corporate conglomerate. No one cares enough to get CustServ done with humility and thoroughness.

Homebrew01

Any shop should service Cannondale or any other brand. They may not be a Cannondale dealer, but they would be foolish to turn away repair work.

There are a few oddball bikes here and there especially in the classic/vintage world, but the modern major brands are pretty much all the same from the mechanic's point of view. All the parts are readily available and replaceable, either with the same parts or equivalent.

If you have a square taper crank, then a crank puller to remove it, and just the existing crank bolt to tighten it back on.

TrojanHorse

I thought you said emails and then you start going on about call centers?

One of my co-workers likes to say that the "quality of the answer depends on the quality of the question" Based on what you've written so far, I'd say that's part of your issue with cannondale.

Regardless, they're not in business to train consumers in the art of bicycle maintenance. They actively discourage it!

There are a lot of resources on the internet for the DIY crowd (including this forum, park tools, youtube etc) but the manufacturer is not one of them. Complaining about it won't change anything.

HillRider

Guys, this equine is long since deceased. I recommend the thread be locked before we thrash it any further.

FBinNY 

we need a new dingbat. A dead horse with flies circulating above.

Homebrew01

I'm a dingbat at times.






Now, we could discuss the trainwreck above. Notice that 2 seemingly identical trains approach each other, then crash head-on. Why do the cars and caboose crash differently ? Shouldn't they react about the same ?

samg07094

The above comment could be posted usefully on the bulletin boards of every one of the 80,000 call centers in America.

It's a rare CC operation indeed that has not combined the phone/email/letters functions to the same shop. It's all communication. Same problems, same information.

Most importantly, that's not what you get at a CC run by a bank, insurance company, brokerage, or realty. Training eliminates negative approaches.

Educating clients is a prime goal and you have to take clients as they come. It doesn't make sense to pretend that knowing about bikes or anything else makes you a superior individual most suited to a "Galt Gulch" ego-driven community. Avoid narcissism.

Look at what the guys did here at BF, the ones who helped out. That's exactly what Cannondale's CC should be doing to develop client relationships. Expect to see dumb questions and dumb clients. My approach would be to put together a Resources FAQ page at the web site and forward those in need of basic bike education to a proper FAQ.

I wasn't kidding about our LBS not servicing Cdale. They are in a chain store and do mechanical service on brands they sell. The rule's a rule. The mechanic shows up a day or two a week. I'm sure they put on a tire for almost anybody if you leave the bike.

"The quality of the answer depends on the quality of the question."

For a professional CustServ operation, really ??? How can that be believable?

Burton

Reviewing the OP's posts to date, they have claimed to be 70 years old with 60 years of experience 'playing around with bikes, has a hydraulic press available for BB installations but doesn't have a clue what the standard size for a water bottle cage is, thinks the best way to address buying a frame thats too large is to cut it down with a hacksaw, and wants to sell a story that some dealer built up his bike specifically for a test ride and for sone unexplained reason kept that original box just for that bike (although the OP also claims to have scrapped it himself immediately after taking the bike out).

Our shop has built up two Cannondale Quicks recently specifically to be presented as gifts at fund raisers. The bikes came directly from Cannondale in their original boxes for the ocassion and the boxes were discarded immediately.

This isn't a dead horse - its a troll post IMO and should be closed.

samg07094

Why would anyone other than a bike mechanic know what the standard size would be for a water bottle cage? Much less, what the size and thread would be for the bolts?

It's just the best way to keep that particular frame alive. Also use a band saw, not a hack. Rebrazing a frame ain't all that foreign as an approach if you've had a few hours spent repairing old plumbing systems. About the same technology -- plus lengthening the chainstay also becomes possible for a smoother ride.

More accurately, one brother bought the bike as a gift for another brother. The bike was assembled, test driven, then partially disassembled, reboxed, and shipped East. Then it was not reassembled and used.

Apart from paranoia, I cannot imagine how that would appear sneaky or trollish or dishonest.

Since the box ID number matched the bike ID number, what's the mystery? Or is this line of insults a try at discrediting Craig's List purchases generally? We're to be told that every CL bike is stolen property? Even here, where the seller is an engineer with Microsoft.

Upgrading the Cannondale CustServ operation is surely doable. There is so much they could do that they do not do well or at all. If they could move half-way toward the quality of the helpful messages here at bikeforums.net, it would have to help the brand.

fietsbob

but it adds to the cost of the product, those extra CS people have to be Paid.

, and people (like you?) want things that cost less, not More.

Plus you dont grasp that you wont get better service by skipping the retail Dealer .
that is what you found , and are sniveling about..

Its only the General's Daughter that can see the General,
without, Going through the Chain of Command.

jsharr

Homebrew01

Assuming your location of 07094 refers to Secaucus NJ, there are some real biks shops you could go to other than a place like Sports Authority.
A quick search shows several such as Chelsea Bicycles "WE SERVICE ANY AND ALL BRANDS OF BICYCLES" https://chelseabicyclesny.net/
and
James Vincent, a Cannondale dealer: https://www.jamesvincentbicycles.com/